Matthew Paul Turner is a Christian blogger, author, and former fundamentalist. He has authored 10 books and is the former editor of CCM (Christian Music Magazine). He’s one of my favorite Christian bloggers and was kind enough to agree to an interview.

DANIEL: Your blog name is “Jesus Needs New PR”…

ME: I started blogging in 2006. However, before it became the name of my blog, “Jesus Needs New PR” was a book title for a collection of essays about how the actions, words, and sometimes stupidity of various segments of the Christian culture impacted Jesus’s “image.” But despite being signed to a Christian publishing house, the book never released. Fourteen months later, after the writing and editing was finished, the head guy at the publishing house deemed the manuscript too controversial and refused to release it. I took it to five other publishing houses, four of which were Christian imprints — all of them said no. At some point during that time, I started the blog.